Gulag Story by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
In his excellent review of David Evanier's black comedy, Red Love [Books in Review, September 1991], Arch Puddington mentions a character named Antonio Carelli.

The Pollster & the Nazis by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
In his article, “The Pollster and the Nazis” [August 1991], Leo Bogart maintains that I was effectively a Nazi during the years between 1933 and 1945.

European Unity by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Giuseppe Sacco's dream of “Saving Europe from Itself” [September 1991] shows a definite, if rather grudging, streak of common sense—notably about economic matters.

Rebekah by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
In his unbridled admiration for the matriarch Rebekah [“A Woman for All Seasons,” September 1991], Leon R. Kass shares the opinions of most classical commentaries (Rashi, for example) who went to great lengths in justifying the stealing of Isaac's blessing.

The Two Cultures by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Reading the opening paragraphs of Michael Lind's article, “The Two Cultures (Continued)” [August 1991], caused me much merriment.

America and Israel: An Ominous Change by Norman PodhoretzHas there been a change in American policy toward Israel since the Bush administration took office? To many observers, the answer to that question is so self-evidently yes that even asking it seems foolish or disingenuous.

Why Anita Hill Lost by Suzanne GarmentWe will simply have to accept, for the present, that no more than two people in the world can know with certainty whether Clarence Thomas said to Anita Hill what she says he did.
Shortly before the U.S.

On the Road to Isolationism? by George WeigelWith the death of Communism and the waning of the cold war, a three-sided strategic and moral debate over the future course of U.S.

The Senator They Love to Hate by Charles HornerFrom time to time, American political figures become convenient symbols of the evil against which all enlightened people are automatically ranged.

How to Be Politically Correct by Daniel SeligmanIn The Sunshine Boys, which is about two retired comedians loosely modeled on Smith and Dale, Neil Simon has one of them explaining that some things are funny and always get a laugh, while other things are invincibly unfunny.

The Samson Option, by Seymour M. Hersh by Steven EmersonInventing the Facts
The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy.
by Seymour M. Hersh.
Random House. 354 pp. $23.00.
Seymour Hersh has long been recognized as one of America's top investigative journalists.

The Journals of John Cheever, edited by Robert Gottlieb by Morris FreedmanIndecent Exposure
The Journals of John Cheever.
by Robert Gottlieb.
Knopf. 399 pp. $25.00.
A seasoned admirer of the fiction of John Cheever is likely to go through these journals, which he kept from about the late 40's until his death in 1982, in a kind of feverish disturbance, as memorable scenes and characters from the novels and short stories come alive but with a different coloration, with thicker strokes, and with haunting, sometimes astonishing biographical details.
In the dry, isolated passages of these journals, the Breughelesque men, women, children, and pets of Cheever's autumnal upstate New York and Connecticut landscapes become grotesque, bleak, Hieronymus Bosch gargoyles.

Deborah, Golda, and Me, by Letty Cottin Pogrebin by Midge DecterEngendering Judaism
Deborah, Golda, and Me.
by Letty Cottin Pogrebin.
Crown. 377 pp. $22.00.
Jewish women, observes Letty Cottin Pogrebin in her new book, Deborah, Golda, and Me, “often are asked to choose between two movements that represent both aspects of my double identity—Judaism and feminism.

Three Blind Mice, by Ken Auletta by George RussellTuning Out
Three Blind Mice: How the TV Networks Lost Their Way.
by Ken Auletta.
Random House. 642 pp. $25.00.
What should we make of the decline of perhaps the most pervasive cultural and social—and therefore, in a real sense, political—institution of our time? Broadcast television is surely deserving of that description.

Reader Letters January 1992 by Edward AlexanderThe Two Cultures
TO THE EDITOR OF COMMENTARY:
Reading the opening paragraphs of Michael Lind's article, "The Two Cultures (Continued)" [Au-
gust 1991], caused me much mer- riment.

The Democrats' Dilemma by Lawrence MeadSince the late 1960's, a sea change has come over American politics. Republicans have dominated presidential elections as thoroughly as Democrats did in earlier decades.

Freud's Jewish Problem by Robert AlterFreud's Moses and Monotheism is surely one of the most curious last works of a major writer. He began its composition in Vienna in 1934, a year after Hitler's rise to power.

Screen Test by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
In his discussion of the recent Sidney Lumet film, A Stranger Among Us [“Holy Hollywood!,” November 1992], Edward Norden goes out of his way to deride Brooklyn's hasidic community.

Jacob Katz by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
David Singer's “Homage to Jacob Katz” [October 1991] points the way to understanding the remarkable contribution of Professor Katz to Jewish scholarship.

PC on Campus by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
One tires after a while of seeing repeated, again and again, the misrepresentations offered by Dinesh D'Souza in his self-proclaimed “fight against political correctness” [“PC So Far,” October 1991].

Ethnic Leaders by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Linda Chavez, in “Hispanics vs. Their Leaders” [October 1991], offers a painful contrast between the conduct of today's radical and separatist Hispanic leaders and that of earlier ethnic leaders.

The Ex-Soviet Union by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Reading Vladimir Bukovsky's article, “What to Do about the Soviet Collapse” [September 1991], I was reminded of how much we all owe to Mr.

The End of the Cold War by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Until its unconvincing effort to give principal credit for the collapse of Communism to the Reagan administration, I thought “The Cold War & the Intellectuals” by Owen Harries [October 1991] was one of the finest articles COMMENTARY has ever published.

The Miami Model by Mario LlosaThere is no place better than Miami to begin reflecting upon the relations between the Latin American countries and the United States.

Clarence Thomas and the Blacks by Arch PuddingtonThe appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court may well mark an important moment in the debate over racial policy in America.
For now, of course, the long-term significance of the Thomas confirmation has been obscured by the controversy over last-minute charges that the nominee sexually harassed his subordinate, Anita Hill, while both of them were serving at the Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).1 And two other factors have also served to blunt the appointment's impact.
First, Thomas, apparently on the advice of White House aides mindful of the unhappy fate of Judge Robert Bork, made a calculated decision to avoid serious discussion of any issues which might provoke pointed ideological clashes during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

How Important Are the Dead Sea Scrolls? by Robert AlterThe real mystery of the Dead Sea Scrolls is a consequence of the perishability of parchment and papyrus. Since the 19th century, the Middle East has yielded up wave after rich wave of literary, legal, annalistic, and cultic materials, many of them in hitherto unknown languages.

The Illegibility of This World by Richard SternThis weekend, between the World Series and Halloween, I'm alone. Ellen's in Buffalo for our daughter Annie's thirty-sixth birthday. Friday, I drove her to Midway, then went downtown to my one-room office on Adams, checked the markets, bought a Kansas City municipal, faxed a letter to our insurance agent, sent copies of our living wills to our granddaughter—old enough now to be in on it; who knows, she might be the one to unplug the tubes—and walked five blocks to the Pub Club for the best hour of the day, lunch at the Round Table on the eleventh floor looking over the silver river and the blue bulge of the State of Illinois Building.
I've been a club member 35 years.

Harassment Blues by Naomi MunsonWhen I was graduated from college in the early '70s, I had the good fortune to land a job at a weekly newsmagazine.

Nadine Gordimer's Politics by Jillian BeckerIn Johannesburg, in 1949—the year I turned seventeen—my mother and three or four others launched a publishing company called Silver Leaf Books.

Maus II, by Art Spiegelman by Hillel HalkinInhuman Comedy
Maus II: A Survivors Tale. And How My Troubles Began.
by Art Spiegelman.
Pantheon. 136 pp. $18.00.
Whether or not Art Spiegel-man was aware of it when he chose to portray Jews as mice in his much-lauded comic-strip series about the Holocaust, he was preceded by Franz Kafka, whose “Josephine the Singer, Or the Mouse Folk” tells of a rodent people that lead “a precarious existence amid the tumult of a hostile world” and are “inured .

Bernard Shaw, by Michael Holroyd by Terry TeachoutMan of the Century
Bernard Shaw: The Lure of Fantasy, 1918-1950.
by Michael Holroyd.
Random House. 544 pp. $30.00.
For a very long time, George Bernard Shaw's status as an all-purpose sage appeared unassailable.

Harlem Photographs: 1932-1940, by Aaron Siskind by Irving HorowitzOutsider with a Camera
Harlem Photographs. 1932-1940.
by Aaron Siskind.
With a new introduction by Maricia Battle. Foreword by Gordon Parks. Smithsonian Institution Press.

Entering New Worlds, by Max M. Kampelman by David BrockCold-War Liberal
Entering New Worlds.
by Max M. Kampelman.
HarperCollins. 402 pp. $25.00.
Max Kampelman had a front-row seat at many of the central political dramas of the post-World War II era: the rise of McCarthyism, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the McGovernization of the Democratic party, the defeat of world Communism by the resurgent democracies of the West.

Backlash, by Susan Faludi by Charlotte AllenNew Wave Feminism
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women.
by Susan Faludi.
Crown. 552 pp. $24.00.
Only a few years ago feminism was reported to be dead, done in at least in part by the backsliding of some of its own pioneers.

Reader Letters February 1992 by Vladimir BukovskyThe End of the Cold War
TO THE EDITOR OF COMMENTARY:
Until its unconvincing effort to give principal credit for the col- lapse of Communism to the Rea-
gan administration, I thought "The Cold War & the Intellectuals"
by Owen Harries [October 1991] was one of the finest articles COMMENTARY has ever published.

Isaac Bashevis Singer by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Thank you for Joseph Epstein's illuminating eulogy—no, make that paean, instead—to the late Isaac Bashevis Singer [“Our Debt to I.B.

Aid & Eastern Europe by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
In his article, “How Not to Aid Eastern Europe” [November 1991], Nicholas N. Eberstadt makes some good points about foreign-aid mistakes of the past.

Jewish Population by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
. . . In response to Edward Norden's “Counting the Jews” [October 1991], let me say that there is only one reason that .

Rape & the Feminists by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
I do not share Andrea Dworkin's belief that women lose their integrity when they lose their virginity, I am neither a lesbian nor a “man-hater,” and I do not practice or even advocate abstinence.

Is America on the Way Down? by Robert BartleyThe idea that the United States is in decline might itself have been expected to decline with the collapse of the Soviet Union and our emergence as the only remaining superpower.

Russia's Chance by Richard PipesWhen in 1917 the Russian empire exploded in revolution, the writer V.V. Rozanov observed with astonishment that his country had “wilted in two days.

The Jeffries Affair by Philip GourevitchOne afternoon last August, the columnist Murray Kempton of Newsday stood on a street corner in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, discussing academic politics with a middle-aged black man.

What Louis Kahn Built by Michael J. LewisThe architect Louis I. Kahn (1901-74) was a classic late bloomer. He was nearly sixty when Richards Medical Laboratory, his first project to be internationally celebrated, was built at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Sepharad '92 by Chaim RaphaelOne of the more agreeable events in modern Jewish history is due to unfold on March 31 of this year when the King of Spain joins a special service in the synagogue of Madrid in order to rescind the Edict of Expulsion signed by his ancestors King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella exactly 500 years earlier.

“Ghosts” and American Opera by Samuel LipmanThis past December, the Metropolitan Opera of New York, the only music-performance institution in the United States now prospering financially, presented the world premiere of The Ghosts of Versailles, a “Grand Opera Buffa in Two Acts” by the composer John Corigliano (born 1938) and his librettist William M.

The End of History and the Last Man, by Francis Fukuyama by Paul JohnsonTo the 21st Century
The End of History and the Last Man.
by Francis Fukuyama.
The Free Press. 418 pp. $24.95.
Educated people have an extraordinary appetite for absolute answers to historical questions, answers which wise historians know cannot be forthcoming.

Den of Thieves, by James B. Stewart by Paul RobertsInsider Journalism
Den of Thieves.
by James B. Stewart.
Simon & Schuster. 493 pp. $25.00.
Following Ivan Boesky's guilty plea to insider trading in November 1986, articles began to appear in the Wall Street Journal under the bylines of James B.

Mostly Morgenthaus, by Henry Morgenthau III by Jonathan SarnaGenerations
Mostly Morgenthaus: A Family History.
by Henry Morgenthau III.
Ticknor & Fields. 501 pp. $27.50.
Storybook histories of old-line German-Jewish families in America resemble one another to a remarkable degree.

Reader Letters March 1992 by Norman PodhoretzRape & the Feminists
TO THE EDITOR OF COMMENTARY:
I do not share Andrea Dworkin's
belief that women lose their integ- rity when they lose their virginity,
I am neither a lesbian nor a "man- hater," and I do not practice or even advocate abstinence.

Marie Syrkin Fellowship by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Last year, in memory of Marie Syrkin, poet, essayist, teacher, and Zionist leader, the Marie Syrkin Fellowship in Letters in Jerusalem was established.

The Noelle-Neumann Case by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
We would like to respond to Leo Bogart's article, “The Pollster and the Nazis” [August 1991], and Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann's reply [Letters from Readers, January].
As members of a university community, we consider it our duty to uphold academic freedom.

Deconstruction by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
I write to protest Peter Shaw's “The Rise & Fall of Deconstruction” [December 1991]. Mr. Shaw begins his article with the commonplace observation that universities have been transformed “from places of learning to arenas of political confrontation.” What is surprising, though, is that he follows the now routine neoconservative denunciation of this situation with an article that exhibits none of the virtues of disinterested scholarship that he presumably defends, and all of the vices of narrow-mindedness, bigotry, and ideological sloganeering that he so rightly deplores.
Mr.

AIDS Statistics by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Michael Fumento's diatribe against what he terms the “AIDS establishment” smacks of elitism [“AIDS So Far,” December 1991].

Latin American Jews by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
I read Judith Laikin Elkin's article, “A Gallery of Former Jews” [December 1991], with great interest. I was born and spent my childhood in Bolivia, where my father, desperate to leave Poland, volunteered to serve in the army.

Public Television by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
The article on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) by David Horowitz, “The Politics of Public Television” [December 1991], is dismaying.

Magnificent, But Was It War? by Angelo Codevilla“C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre.” Thus in 1854 did a French observer dismiss the Light Brigade's charge into the Russian guns at Balaklava during the Crimean War.

Yeltsin and Us by Martin MaliaBeside the desolate waves stood he,
And charged with mighty thoughts,
stared out. . .
Here shall a city be laid down
In defiance to a haughty neighbor
Here nature has predestined us
To break a window through to Europe.

Regarding Daughters and Sisters by Leon KassDedicated to my daughter, Sarah Kass, with special thanks for her invaluable insights into both the story and its subject.
Ever since I was a boy, long before I had a wife and daughters, I have always thought and keenly felt that rape is a capital offense, a crime worse even than murder.

A Map of Modern Art by Michael LindBetween the 60's and today the visual arts ceased to matter to the life of the mind. In living memory, an educated person was expected to know the names of the two or three most prominent painters, sculptors, and architects of the day.

Liberals, Conservatives & the Family by Jessica Gress-WrightIn her new book, When the Bough Breaks, Sylvia Ann Hewlett recites the dreary litany of economic and social stress on the American family.

Yiddish on Screen by David RoskiesAt the age of fourteen, surrounded by an audience of viewers fifty to sixty years my seniors, I saw a prewar Yiddish talkie called Neighbors at the Jewish Public Library in Montreal.

My Bout With Affirmative Action by Timothy MaguireI came out of my encounter with the politically correct all right, I guess. I was graduated from Georgetown University Law Center (GULC), as the Georgetown law school is called, in spite of calls for my expulsion.

Anti-Americanism, by Paul Hollander by Mark FalcoffAmerica-Bashing
Anti-Americanism: Critiques at Home and Abroad, 1965-1990.
by Paul Hollander.
Oxford University Press. 531 pp. $35.00.
After the cold war, what does the Left have left? The answer would seem to be anti-Americanism.

Comandos: The CIA and Nicaragua's Contra Rebels, by Sam Dillon by Stephen SchwartzPro & Contra
Comandos: The CIA and Nicaragua's Contra Rebels.
by Sam Dillon.
Holt. 393 pp.$27.50.
With the election victory of Violeta Chamorro two years ago, political conflict in Nicaragua ceased to be news in the United States.

Ed School Follies, by Rita Kramer by Joseph AdelsonPC at TC
Ed School Follies: The Miseducation of America's Teachers.
by Rita Kramer.
Free Press. 228 pp. $22.95.
Rita Kramer's previous book, At a Tender Age, was a graphic and depressing report on the juvenile-justice system—in particular, on how it happens that so many predatory youngsters have been set loose by that system to terrorize the rest of us.

Reader Letters April 1992 by David HorowitzPublic Television
TO THE EDITOR OF COMMENTARY:
The article on the Public Broad-
casting Service (PBS) by David
Horowitz, "The Politics of Public Television" [December 1991], is
dismaying.

How to Be PC by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
There is often wit in COMMENTARY that makes you smile, . . . but laugh out loud? For that pleasure we have Daniel Seligman to thank.

The Dead Sea Scrolls by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
With his customary elegance (except, of course, for his characterization of me as “leather-lunged”), Robert Alter answers the question posed by his title, “How Important Are the Dead Sea Scrolls?” [February] with an emphatic, “Not very.” As an antidote to the exaggerated, sensational, and irresponsible claims sometimes made for the scrolls, especially expectations for the unpublished ones, I heartily welcome Mr.

Suicide by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Leon R. Kass's diatribe against euthanasia [“Suicide Made Easy,” December 1991], reveals how obtuse, irrational, and, yes, evil are many arguments against euthanasia.

America and Israel by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
In “America and Israel: An Ominous Change” [January], Norman Podhoretz—intelligent and eloquent as he is—just has it wrong.

Is America on the Way Down? (Round Two) by Peter BergerIn our March issue, Edward N. Luttwak argued that the United States is on the way to becoming a third-world country, as inferior to Japan as Brazil today is to us.

Buchanan and the Conservative Crackup by Norman PodhoretzThere is plenty of bad news about Patrick J. Buchanan's campaign for the Republican nomination for President in 1992, but the good news is that it has gone so badly with the voters.
This, of course, is not how that campaign has generally been seen.

In Memoriam: Lucy S. Dawidowicz by Neal Kozodoy“Being an American was itself enough to give anyone a bushelful of courage.”
Thus, the late historian Lucy S. Dawidowicz (whose name is enduringly associated with this magazine) contemplating at a remove of five decades the inner impulse which in 1938 had led her, a girl of twenty-three, on a year's flight out from the freedom and safety of America into the heart of East European Jewry, a human civilization already then being readied for the rack and soon by human will to be smashed from the earth, obliterated in blood and soot.

1492 and All That by Richard RyanFour-Hundred-Ninety-Nine years after Christopher Columbus collided with the New World on his way to Asia, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

“The People's Poet” by Joseph EpsteinThe Poet is a heroic figure belonging to all ages; whom all ages possess, when once he is produced, whom the newest age as the oldest may produce—and will produce, always when Nature pleases.

A Purim Homily by Ruth WisseWith one exception, all Jewish holidays relate to the land of Israel, to ancient festivals, Temple rites, and local victories.

Revolution From Within, by Gloria Steinem by Joseph AdelsonThe Pansophist
Revolution From Within: A Book of Self-Esteem.
by Gloria Steinem.
Little, Brown. 377 pp. $22.95.
As everyone must know by now, this book recounts Gloria Steinem's search for self-esteem, the lessons she learned from that exercise, and her decision to inflict the resulting wisdom on an all-too-willing public.

Benevolence and Betrayal, by Alexander Stille by Edward AlexanderAnother Country
Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism.
by Alexander Stille.
Summit Books. 365 pp. $25.00.
They were always hopeful. They used to say: “But the pope .

The De-Valuing of America, by William J. Bennett by Rita KramerWar Diary
The De-Valuing of America: The Fight for Our Culture and Our Children.
by William J. Bennett.
Summit Books. 271 pp. $20.00.
If it is true that you can judge a man by his enemies, William J.

Reader Letters May 1992 by Hershel ShanksAmerica and Israel
TO THE EDITOR OF COMMENTARY: In "America and Israel: An Omi-
nous Change" [January], Norman
Podhoretz-intelligent and elo-
quent as he is-just has it wrong.
Far from a Palestinian state being
completely antithetical to the in-
terests of the United States, as he
argues, such a state would be to
the United States' benefit.
What Mr.

Michael Milken by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Paul Craig Roberts, reviewing James B. Stewart's Den of Thieves [Books in Review, March], comments that Michael Milken's vulnerability stemmed largely from the circumstance that Milken “had made huge amounts of money, for himself and others, by activities the ordinary person could not understand.” I am certainly to be counted as such a person, and I cannot claim to have any clear understanding of how Milken carried on his business or to what degree an objective cognoscente (if such exists) would regard his methods as criminal.

PC at Stanford by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
In the February letters section, David Merkowitz of the National Council on Education, responding to Dinesh D'Souza's article, “PC So Far” [October 1991], claims that political correctness is not a serious problem on American campuses.

G.B. Shaw & Music by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Terry Teachout's contention in his review of Bernard Shaw, by Michael Holroyd [Books in Review, February], that in musical matters Shaw “became uncomfortable whenever he strayed very far from the shallows” is a laughable put-down of a body of sparkling and penetrating criticism that unlike most journalism is worth reading a century after it was written.

Sexual Harassment by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Naomi Munson's article, “Harassment Blues” [February], is the most insightful piece I have ever read on women in the workplace, and the women's movement in general.

The Black Community by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
In “Clarence Thomas and the Blacks” [February], Arch Puddington hints that a solution to our race-relations problems “may be under way.” There is probably more than one solution, provided reasonable people are doing the thinking, but as with many other major social problems, militant advocates at both ends of the spectrum dominate the field and are willing to consider only their own answers.

The Dead Sea Scrolls by To the Editor:
We find Robert Alter's article, “How Important Are the Dead Sea Scolls?” [February], to be misleading and in poor taste on a large number of points.

Anti-Semitism by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
I was disappointed in Norman Podhoretz's article, “What Is Anti-Semitism? An Open Letter to William F. Buckley, Jr.” [February], because he made no real effort to define anti-Semitism.

The Patriot Smear & Its Progeny by David Bar-IllanIsrael Watch, the department we introduce here, is meant to deal with a new situation: the escalation of the ideological and political war against Israel which has been going on since, roughly, the end of the Gulf War.

The New Anti-Catholicism by George WeigelOver the past several years, evidence has been mounting that new forms of an old bigotry, anti-Catholicism, are befouling American public life.

Yes, Oswald Alone Killed Kennedy by Jacob CohenEven the strongest supporters of JFK, Oliver Stone's notorious film on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, concede that it is deceptive: fabricated footage gussied up as documentary fact; fictional characters and scenes offered as proof of perfidy; paranoid insinuations about the conscious involvement of the highest officials in the land; outright lies.

Seeing the Nakedness of His Father by Leon KassStanding in the large men's locker room of the National Capitol YMCA, getting dressed after my swim and shower, I overheard a conversation taking place out of my sight, on the other side of my row of lockers: “You wait right here; I'll be back soon, after my shower.”
On my return from the shower a minute before, I had glimpsed, out of the corner of my eye, a young child, perhaps three years old or four, playing on the floor far down the neighboring aisle, a child much too small, thought I, to be left unattended amid this motley crowd of unfamiliar men.

Are Girls Shortchanged in School? by Rita KramerIn America today, more girls graduate from high school than boys and more of them go on to college, where they make up 55 percent of the total enrollment.

How to Read Crime and Punishment by Gary MorsonFyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (1866) is above all a novel of ideas, and in its pages one reads about people who profess the philosophical obsessions of their time.

The Imperial Temptation, by Robert W. Tucker and David C. Hendrickson by Elliott AbramsAmerica and the World
The Imperial Temptation.
by Robert W. Tucker and David C. Hendrickson.
Council on Foreign Relations Press. 228 pp. $22.50.
“The United States could not remain on the margin of universal history, but did not know how to participate fully or determine what its role therein should be.” Thus, the late French political philosopher Raymond Aron writing about the period before World War I.

Edna St. Vincent Millay: Selected Poems, edited by Colin Falck by Evelyn ToyntonPoetry and Gender
Edna St. Vincent Millay: Selected Poems. The Centenary Edition.
by Colin Falck.
HarperCollins. 162 pp. $18.00.
Literature being an art in which women have acquitted themselves rather spectacularly, it remains perplexing that their greatest achievements should seem to be confined to prose.

The Disuniting of America, by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. by Heather MacDonaldToward Yugoslavia?
The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society.
by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Norton. 160 pp. $14.95.
Originally published by Whittle Direct Books and now reissued with an expanded foreword, The Disuniting of America: Reflections on a Multicultural Society is an uncompromising look at the fraud of multiculturalism and Afrocentrism.

October Surprise, by Gary Sick by Michael LedeenConspiracy Theory
October Surprise.
by Gary Sick.
Random House. 278 pp. $23.00.
For the substantial segment of the American intelligentsia which has still not digested Ronald Reagan's presidency, October Surprise offers some solace.

Reader Letters June 1992 by Norman PodhoretzAnti-Semitism
TO THE EDITOR OF COMMENTARY:
I was disappointed in Norman Podhoretz's article, "What Is Anti-
Semitism? An Open Letter to Wil-
liam F.

The Historical Jesus by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
. . . It is an indication of Hyam Maccoby's indifference, if not hostility, to Christianity that in his review of John P.

Leonard Jeffries by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
There was one small but important error of fact in Philip Gourevitch's otherwise accurate and insightful article on Leonard Jeffries [“The Jeffries Affair,” March] and, secondarily, myself.
Mr.

Daughters and Sisters by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
I have been reading COMMENTARY for some time now, and while I do not always understand the history and meaning behind many of the articles on Judaism, never have I read anything so bizarre as Leon R.

Louis Kahn by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Michael J. Lewis's article, “What Louis Kahn Built” [March], leaves out an important point of view. In common with much of today's literature on arts which are not fine arts, that is, which encompass function as well as aesthetics, Mr.

The Ex-Soviet Union by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Richard Pipes's insightful article, “Russia's Chance” [March], is another example of his clear-eyed perspective when it comes to informing us about that empire of illusions and lies that was the Soviet Union.

The Gulf War by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Evidently displeased with President Bush's management of the war in the Gulf, . . . Angelo M. Codevilla [“Magnificent, But Was It War?,” April] endeavors, albeit unconvincingly, to catalogue the purported errors of Bush's ways.

How the Rioters Won by Midge DecterIn August 1965, the late Bayard Rustin, one of the major civil-rights leaders of that day, traveled to Los Angeles to see for himself the results of the massive outbreak of violence, arson, and looting that was henceforth to be known simply as “Watts.” In the course of the melee, 34 people had been killed, more than 1,000 injured, and local businesses and services almost totally wiped out.

The Legacy of the 60's by Charles Murray“Is President Bush hinting that the Peace Corps destroyed the moral fiber of poor people?” asked Albert Shanker, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, responding to the claim by the White House spokesman, Marlin Fitzwater, that the failed social programs of the 1960's were responsible for the Los Angeles riot.

Losing the Peace by Joshua MuravchikFor most of its history American foreign policy has been isolationist, a tradition broken decisively only in 1948 in response to Soviet imperialism.

Reunion by Gloria GoldreichI had not seen him for many years—I discount the time our cars pulled up side by side at a red light on Dizengoff Street in Tel Aviv and we shouted each other's names with the hysterical glee of travelers overjoyed to encounter a familiar face on foreign terrain, only to lose each other as the light changed and my husband accelerated with rare venom—and I think it strange that we should meet at such a time, at such a gathering.

PBS Does It Again by Andrea LevinOver the last decade the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) has offered its viewers at least fifteen documentaries on the Arab-Israeli conflict, of which no more than three can reasonably be described as balanced.

The Birth of the Modern, by Paul Johnson by Norman GallModernity
The Birth of the Modern: World Society 1815-1830.
by Paul Johnson.
HarperCollins. 1,120 pp. $35.00; $16.00 (paper).
From the terrible conflicts of this century we have learned that, in addition to the devastation they wreak, big wars can accelerate ongoing innovations in organization and material technologies that will in turn expand the scale, complexity, and logistical reach of those human communities able to recover quickly from the conflagrations.

The Girls in the Balcony, by Nan Robertson by Stephanie GutmannGendrification
The Girls in the Balcony: Women, Men and the New York Times.
by Nan Robertson.
Random House. 274 pp. $22.00.
A journalist who has spent three decades of her life working at the New York Times, Nan Robertson was one of six women who in the mid-1970's sued the paper for “broad patterns and practices of sex discrimination,” thus becoming a main character in what she calls “the single most important collective event in the history of women at the New York Times.” She is probably right about the significance of the event.

Law and Morality in Israel's War with the PLO, by William V. O'Brien by Allan GersonRoadmap
Law and Morality in Israel's War with the PLO.
by William V. O'Brien.
Routledge. 342 pp. $15.95.
At the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal an iron distinction was drawn between “ius ad bellum”—the law governing the initiation of war—and “ius in bello”— the law governing the conduct of war.

The Columbia History of the American Novel, edited by Emory Elliott by Evelyn ToyntonPolicing Literature
The Columbia History of the American Novel.
by Emory Elliott,
General Editor. Columbia University Press. 905 pp. $59.95.
To judge by the essays collected in this volume, one of the chief attractions of multiculturalism, for the professors at least, is that it relieves them of the arduous labor of thinking.

Saving Remnants, by Sara Bershtel and Allen Graubard by Edward NordenBeyond Assimilation?
Saving Remnants: Feeling Jewish in America.
by Sara Bershtel and Allen Graubard.
Free Press. 333 pp. $24.95.
The authors of this grim book worked on it, they say, for twelve years.

Reader Letters July 1992 by Hyam MaccobyThe Gulf War
TO THE EDITOR OF COMMENTARY:
Evidently displeased with Presi-
dent Bush's management of the
war in the Gulf, . . .

Is White Racism the Problem? by Arch PuddingtonA conspicuous feature of the commentary on the recent Los Angeles riot was the many comparisons between racial conflict in America and the most murderous ethnic strife abroad.

Is America on the Way Down? (Round Three) by Our ReadersIn our March issue, Edward N. Luttwak and Robert L. Bartley debated the question “Is America on the Way Down?” In May, we published Round Two of this debate, with comments from nine writers who have in recent years dealt with allegations of American decline.

The Scandal of College Tuition by Thomas SowellIn a world where parents go into debt to finance their children's higher education and where alumni, corporations, and Congress are besieged with calls for more donations to colleges and universities, the time is long overdue to ask why college is so costly.

Why Likud Lost-And Who Won by David Bar-IllanHad Israel voted its pocketbook in the June 23 elections, the Likud party, led by Yitzhak Shamir, would have won easily.

Europe: Miracle or Monster? by Paul JohnsonThe ratification, or not, of the Maastricht Treaty shaping the future of the European Community (EC) is a matter of profound importance not only for Europe itself but, in the long run, for the United States as well.
On June 18, 1992, the people of Ireland, in a referendum, accepted the Treaty by a majority of more than two-to-one.

Joseph Alsop & the WASP Ascendancy by Joseph EpsteinAt various moments in his long career as a journalist in Washington, Joseph Wright Alsop must have thought to liken himself to Henry Adams.

Once Again, Anti-Semitism Without Jews by Robert WistrichIt is hardly surprising that in the three years since the fall of Communism, there has been a resurgence of the old demons of nationalism and anti-Semitism on the European continent, and particularly in Central and Eastern Europe.

Politics & the Academy by Elie KedourieIn 1927 the French man of letters, Julien Benda, published a short book entitled La Trahison des Clercs. The phrase, trahison des clercs, henceforward passed into common discourse to denote and condemn the subordination of scholarship or speculation to some political interest or commitment.

The Mind of God, by Paul Davies by Jeffrey MarshExplaining the Universe
The Mind of God: The Scientific Basis for a Rational World.
by Paul Davies.
Simon & Schuster. 254 pp. $22.00.
The self-imposed task of modern science was first formally described in the early 1600's, when Francis Bacon suggested that a rigorous program of experimentally testing hypotheses about physical phenomena would prove far more effective than medieval scholasticism at discovering how the world really worked and finding the best ways to master nature.

A Return to Love, by Marianne Williamson by John PodhoretzReligiosity Lite
A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles.”
by Marianne Williamson.
HarperCollins. 260 pp. $20.00.
Despite the national clamor over rising illiteracy and the allegedly hypnotic allure of the idiot box, Americans read more today than at any other point in our history.

We the People, by Bruce Ackerman by Caleb NelsonAmending the Constitution
We the People: Foundations.
by Bruce Ackerman.
Harvard University Press. 369 pp. $24.95.
Modern constitutional law is vastly different from that of the early Republic.

Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives, by Alan Bullock by William HylandTyrants
Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives.
by Alan Bullock.
Knopf. 1,082 pp. $35.00.
Someone was bound to combine the biographies of this century's most monstrous tyrants; fortunately, that someone has turned out to be Lord Bullock.

Affirmative Action by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
I was glad to learn that Timothy Maguire [“My Bout With Affirmative Action,” April], who caused consternation in the Washington area by his “revelations” that the Georgetown Law Center not only engaged in affirmative action, but also had quotas, has landed on his feet.

Carl Sandburg by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
. . . Joseph Epstein's point in “The People's Poet” [May] that Carl Sandburg is not read by young people these days is more a comment on the reading habits of the young, such as they are, than on Sandburg.

“Circa 1492” by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
For one who writes on politics and culture, the necessity of combining the two must be the sine qua non of his profession; otherwise, it is difficult to understand the rationale of Richard Ryan's article on the “Circa 1492” exhibition at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.

“A Purim Homily” by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Did Ruth R. Wisse write her article, “A Purim Homily” [May], while actively celebrating that boisterous holiday? How else can one account for the wild speculations emanating from this usually sober and reliable contributor?
What qualifies her to speculate from her distant and foreign perch on the motives and actions of the American diplomats “known to some” (who?) as the “Four Jewish Horsemen of the Apocalypse.” I have known one of them, Daniel Kurtzer, a religiously observant Jew, for 25 years, during the last 15 of which he has provided distinguished service to the United States of America in its Foreign Service while rising to his current position as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs.
The same Daniel Kurtzer who is “centrally involved in the making of policy toward Israel in the administration of George Bush” was also centrally involved in the making of policy toward Israel in the administration of Ronald Reagan.

Lucy S. Dawidowicz by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Neal Kozodoy's “In Memoriam: Lucy S. Dawidowicz” [May] raises some troubling questions. Mr. Kozodoy states that Lucy Dawidowicz categorically repudiated the charge of collective passivity and collusion on the part of European Jewry during the Holocaust.

Aid to Russia by To the Editor:
There is another precedent, aside from those so ably discussed in Martin Malia's article, “Yeltsin and Us” [April], that the United States should keep in mind in formulating assistance policies toward Russia.

Buchanen & the Conservatives by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
My colleagues and I at National Review have the greatest regard for Norman Podhoretz and COMMENTARY. They have had a profound and beneficial impact on the American conservative movement.

Have the Democrats Really Changed?-A Debate by Thomas SowellThere has been much talk of a possible move toward support of the Clinton-Gore ticket by many so-called Reagan Democrats and neoconservative intellectuals who have become increasingly unhappy with the Bush administration.

Why I Thought Perot Would Win by Norman PodhoretzWatching him on television, I never much liked Ross Perot. He always impressed me as one of those arrogant businessmen I have run into from time to time who have a philistine scorn for the skills required in fields other than their own and no respect for the constraints under which people in different enterprises are forced to work if they are to get anything done.

Looking Back at Lot's Wife by Rebecca GoldsteinIt was one of the stories from Genesis that most frightened me as a child: the story of Lot's wife.
She was told not to look, and she looked; and her punishment came swift and horrible.

The Young People's Party by Jennifer MosesThe summer after I was graduated from law school, I moved to Washington to work at the law firm of Freid and Heller, which people called “Fried in Hell.” It was a second-rate firm, small, shabby, on 14th Street north of New York Avenue.

The Might and the Right by Ruth WisseThe near-hegemony of liberal attitudes in the North American media ensures that in any election, only one outcome will ever be hailed with enthusiasm.

Goering's Jewish Friend by Bent Bludnikow“Do you know the name Hugo Rothenberg?”
The man who asked me this question—the year was 1987—was then in his late seventies; his name was Gerhardt Riegner.

Brightness Falls, by Jay McInerney by Evelyn ToyntonHigh Life
Brightness Falls.
by Jay Mcinerney.
Knopf. 416 pp. $23.00.
“You will have to learn everything all over again.” So goes the last line of Jay McInerney's first, most entertaining novel, Bright Lights, Big City (1984).

The American Religion, by Harold Bloom by Richard NeuhausOn Faith
The American Religion: The Emergence of the Post-Christian Nation.
by Harold Bloom.
Simon & Schuster. 288 pp. $22.00.
If one takes enough stabs in the dark, one is bound to hit upon the occasional truth.

The Chairman, by Kai Bird by James MullerEstablishmentarian
The Chairman: John J. Mccloy. The Making of the American Establishment.
by Kai Bird.
Simon & Schuster. 801 pp. $30.00.
That the victorious Allies succeeded in installing durable and friendly democracies in both Germany and Japan after World War II was the greatest achievement of diplomacy during the cold war.

Reader Letters September 1992 by John O'SullivanBuchanan & the
Conservatives
TO THE EDITOR OF COMMENTARY:
My colleagues and I at National
Review have the greatest regard for Norman Podhoretz and COMMEN-
TARY.

Pluralism & the Church by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
In his important article, “The New Anti-Catholicism” [June], George Weigel relates and deplores the history of allegations in the United States that an ascending tyrannical “Romanism” or “Papism” poses a threat to the pluralism of American democracy.

Father Noah by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Leon R. Kass's “Seeing the Nakedness of His Father” [June] is a lively, insightful, and . . .

Schoolgirls by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
. . . Rita Kramer's thesis in “Are Girls Shortchanged in School?” [June] suggests that gender bias in the classroom does not exist or is not important.

Bush, Clinton & the Jews-A Debate by Martin PeretzLast month, we presented a debate between a supporter of Bill Clinton (Richard Schifter) and a supporter of George Bush (Thomas Sowell) on the question of whether the Democratic party has now freed itself from the leftist forces whose accession to power in 1972 drove away many traditionally Democratic voters.

Bosnia: The Return of History by Josef JoffeIt was not supposed to happen that way. History had ended, and the New World Order was upon us. But then, on August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, unleashing the Gulf war.

Free at Last? by Glenn LouryA formative experience of my growing-up on the South Side of Chicago in the 1960's occurred during one of those heated, earnest political rallies so typical of the period.

Their Lustration-And Ours by George WeigelWhen Hitler's Germany was defeated in 1945, there was little doubt in anyone's mind that if a democratic regime were to be established in that country (or at least the part of it under Western control), a period of “denazification” would be necessary.

Love and Loyalty by Ruth WisseDear B.,
This is about as far away from you as I will ever be. I'm at the cottage on the lake, deserted now at the beginning of September by all but the heartiest of the summer people.

Hayek and the Conservatives by David GlasnerAt the time of his death on March 23, 1992, less than two months before his ninety-third birthday, F.A. Hayek was widely if not universally acknowledged as this century's preeminent intellectual advocate of the free market and one of its leading opponents of socialism.

Head to Head, by Lester Thurow by Irwin StelzerOld Wine
Head to Head.
by Lester Thurow.
Morrow. 336 pp. $25.00.
If this book were not so much like the current Democratic platform, it would be merely an amusing read: a noted liberal academic (dean of MIT's Sloan School), his theories done in by inconvenient facts, struggling to explain why he is nevertheless right.
Was America's victory in the cold war due to Ronald Reagan's willingness to outspend and outlast the Soviets? Certainly not, says Thurow.

Rational Readings on Environmental Concerns, edited byJay Lehr by Jeffrey SalmonPC Science
Rational Readings on Environmental Concerns.
by Jay Lehr.
Van Nostrand Reinhold. 841 pp. $49.95.
Two decades ago the Club of Rome published The Limits to Growth, a study which used computer models to predict that economic expansion would soon exhaust global resources and trigger a catastrophic collapse in the world's economy.

Judas Iscariot and the Myth of Jewish Evil, by Hyam Maccoby by Jon Levenson“The Sacred Executioner”
Judas Iscariot and the Myth of Jewish Evil.
by Hyam Maccoby.
Free Press. 213 pp. $22.95.
Seldom have scriptural text and social history come together so explosively as in the case of the New Testament story of Judas Iscariot.

Home Fires, by Donald Katz by Rachel AbramsSam, Eve & the Kids
Home Fires.
by Donald Katz.
HarperCollins. 619 pp. $25.00.
Home Fires is the true-life history of the Gordon family: the parents, Sam and Eve; their multitalented offspring, Susan, Lorraine, Sheila, and Ricky; and their offspring's offspring, Magdalena, Shuna, Shiva, Ram, Gopal, and others.

Reader Letters October 1992 by Rita KramerSchoolgirls
TO THE EDITOR OF COMMENTARY: ... Rita Kramer's thesis in "Are
Girls Shortchanged in School?"
June] suggests that gender bias in the classroom does not exist or is
not important.

The Jewish Family by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
In his review of Saving Remnants, by Sara Bershtel and Allen Graubard [Books in Review, July], I was dismayed by Edward Norden's use of an interview that I gave to the authors.

The Kennedy Assasination by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Bravo for Jacob Cohen's article, “Yes, Oswald Alone Killed Kennedy” [June]. It is concise, clear, and right on the mark.

The L.A. Riots by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
Congratulations on the three splendid articles in your July issue [“After Los Angeles”: “How the Rioters Won” by Midge Decter; “The Legacy of the 60's” by Charles Murray”; and “Is White Racism the Problem?” by Arch Puddington].

The DLC by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
My contribution to the debate in your September issue [“Have the Democrats Really Changed?”] made the point that Governor Bill Clinton's success in obtaining the Democratic presidential nomination has meant that the single-issue groups representing the Left on our political spectrum, which had dominated Democratic conventions in the recent past, have lost out to the centrists.

Why We Still Need SDI by Robert JastrowWhy is the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) still on the public agenda? Didn't reputable scientists tell us that it was a scientific and technological impossibility to develop? And didn't they also tell us that even if it should turn out to be feasible, it would be too expensive? Wasn't it ludicrous to hear Ronald Reagan talk about a shield to protect our country from nuclear missiles; and didn't all kinds of “experts” treat the idea of what they called “Star Wars” with derision and contempt? Anyhow, now that the cold war is over, and we no longer have an enemy, why do we need a defense against nuclear missiles at all?
Yet a Congress overwhelmingly controlled by Democrats appropriated a record $4.15 billion for SDI this past year, with the expectation that the sum will not be appreciably cut for the fiscal year which began on October 1, in spite of our nation's fiscal crunch.

The Strange Debate Over Bosnia by Joshua MuravchikThe carnage in Bosnia, and especially the atrocities committed against Muslims there by local Serbs, aided and abetted by the government of Slobodan Milosevic in Belgrade—the “ethnic cleansing,” the concentration camps, the shelling of civilians—have opened a new chapter in the American foreign-policy debate.

Columbus & the Jews by Jonathan SarnaA century ago, on October 12, 1892, the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's landing in the New World was celebrated with great fanfare all across the United States.

Is Cuba Next? by Mark FalcoffSince the collapse of Communist power in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Fidel Castro's Cuba has entered into the deepest crisis of its history.

The Burial Society by Daniel TroyIt is a truism that we moderns are uncomfortable dealing with death—and especially uncomfortable dealing with dead bodies. Troubled by the very idea of our own mortality, we try to avoid its reminders, among which an actual dead person is certainly the most powerful.

Holy Hollywood! by Edward NordenDuring the presidential campaign much was heard from Dan Quayle and others about how Hollywood is arrogantly, mischievously out of touch.

Hollywood vs. America, by Michael Medved by John PodhoretzOut of Sync
Hollywood Vs. America: Popular Culture and the War On Traditional Values.
by Michael Medved.
HarperCollins. 386 pp. $20.00.
Hollywood vs. America is a passionate and immensely readable polemic about the entertainment industry's self-destructive assault on the ideas and mores of its American audience.

Lincoln at Gettysburg, by Garry Wills by Walter BernsIn 272 Words
Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words that Remade America.
by Garry Wills.
Simon & Schuster. 317 pp. $23.00.
Garry Wills has a lot of interesting things to say about the Gettysburg Address, and especially about the occasion on which it was delivered.

Judaism, Human Values, and the Jewish State, by Yeshayahu Leibowitz by Allan NadlerTorah & Politics
Judaism, Human Values, and the Jewish State.
by Yeshayahu Leibowitz.
Edited by Eliezer Goldman. Harvard University Press. 291 pp. $39.95.
Yeshayahu Leibowitz has long been one of the most eccentric figures in Israeli intellectual life.

The Life of the Parties, by A. James Reichley by Terry EastlandThe System
The Life of the Parties: A History of American Political Parties.
by A. James Reichley.
Free Press. 487 pp. $27.95.
When Ross Perot announced in July that he was ending (temporarily, as it turned out) his independent bid for the presidency, he claimed he was doing so because he could not win the election outright and his candidacy would throw the decision into the House of Representatives.

The Volcano Lover, by Susan Sontag by Evelyn ToyntonThe Critic as Novelist
The Volcano Lover: A Romance.
by Susan Sontag.
Farrar Straus Giroux. 419 pp. $22.00.
Susan Sontag arrived at her present intellectual eminence with the publication of her first collection of essays, Against Interpretation (1966), a consideration of such chic cultural phenomena as happenings, the nouveau roman, French movies, and camp.

Reader Letters November 1992 by Midge DecterThe DLC
TO THE EDITOR OF COMMENTARY: My contribution to the debate in your September issue ["Have the Democrats Really Changed?"] made the point that Governor Bill Clinton's success in obtaining the Democratic presidential nomina- tion has meant that the single- issue groups representing the Left on our political spectrum, which had dominated Democratic con- ventions in the recent past, have lost out to the centrists.

PBS by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
. . . Andrea Levin's article, “PBS Does It Again” [July], is generally part of the conservative attack on federal funding for the Public Broadcasting Service.

American Democracy by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
I share Joshua Muravchik's perception that world history is at a crossroads [“Losing the Peace,” July], but question the relative importance of foreign aid in determining which way it will go.

The Israeli Elections by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
In his otherwise insightful autopsy of Likud's demise at the polls in June [“Why Likud Lost—And Who Won,” August], David Bar-Illan underestimates the importance voters attached to Yitzhak Shamir's timid and indecisive economic policies.

The High Cost of College by Our ReadersTo the Editor:
In his superb article, “The Scandal of College Tuition” [August], Thomas Sowell glides a bit too quickly over the effects of the federal student-loan program and other financial aid.

Straight Talk About Gays by E.L. PattulloThe campaign for gay rights steadily gains ground. Just this past summer, a young Eagle Scout, recently emerged from the closet, filed a suit that bids fair to overturn Scouting's ban on homosexual members.

My Uncle Yitzhak: A Memoir of I.B.. Singer by Maurice Carr“Such,” says my uncle Yitzhak, taking an awestruck sniff at his boiled egg, which stinks, “yes, such is life!”
There is a moment of silence, followed by a burst of hilarity that rocks the breakfast table.

China on the Rise by Charles HornerThere are no “declinists” in China. There may be many Chinese who see in the country's course over the last ten years much to lament.

On Reading for Pleasure Again by Norman PodhoretzThere are times when I find it almost impossible to read for pleasure. Of course, I read for a living: as an editor, I spend much of my working day with manuscripts, galley proofs, newspapers, and other magazines; and many evenings and weekends are consumed by books I have to read in order to keep up.

George Ball's Latest Diatribe by Edward LuttwakIn its confrontations with Israel of the last few years, the Bush administration attempted on more than one occasion to discredit not just the government of Israel but that country's entire reliability as an ally and, therefore, its worthiness to receive American support.

Moscow Gold by Eric BreindelWere the U.S. Communist party (CPUSA) and its various front organizations legitimate phenomena of domestic American political life, despite the fact that they espoused a radical—even heretical—political program? Or did these forces represent a foreign and essentially artificial growth on the American body politic? Did they merely draw together proponents of an unpopular political agenda, or did their practices and goals constitute a conspiracy to advance the interests of a foreign power?
The debate over the nature of American Communism has turned on this set of questions virtually since the birth of the CPUSA.

In Defense of Henry Kissinger by Josef JoffeThe Jeffersonian message is inscribed on the back of every one-dollar bill, right underneath the chopped-off pyramid: novus ordo seclorum, a totally new thing under the sun.

The End of Equality, by Mickey Kaus by Michael HorowitzHow (Not) to save the Underclass
The End of Equality.
by Mickey Kaus.
Basic Books. 293 pp. $25.00.
Mickey Kaus's new book of social policy, The End of Equality, has become a testament for Democrats who have seen tragic follies committed in their name and who now seek new governing strategies.

Informing Statecraft, by Angelo Codevilla by Patrick GlynnAfter the Cold War
Informing Statecraft: Intelligence for a New Century.
by Angelo Codevilla.
Free Press. 350 pp. $24.95.
Production of grand world views and new foreign-policy schemes has become something of a cottage industry among scholars and policy analysts since the end of the cold war—although, despite the outpouring of new visions, we are still a long way either from setting basic strategy or from shaping the institutions necessary to achieve our aims.

The Bias-Free Word Finder, by Rosalie Maggio by Edward LipmanThought-Policeperson
The Bias-Free Word Finder: A Dictionary of Nondiscriminatory Language.
by Rosalie Maggio.
Beacon Press. 304 pp. $15.00 (paper).
“Language both reflects and shapes society,” writes Rosalie Maggio, an editor and author whose books include How to Say It and The Beacon Book of Quotations by Women—and who is clearly more interested in the shaping than in the reflecting.

A Question of Intelligence, by Daniel Seligman by Charles MurrayThe Elephant in the Corner
A Question of Intelligence: The IQ Debate in America.
by Daniel Seligman.
Birch Lane Press. 192 pp. $16.95.
In the tight and sometimes nervous world of people who write about IQ, this book has been a topic of conversation for a long time.

Reader Letters December 1992 by Jeffrey MarshThe High Cost of College
TO THE EDITOR OF COMMENTARY:
In his superb article, "The Scan-
dal of College Tuition" [August], Thomas Sowell glides a bit too quickly over the effects of the fed- eral student-loan program and other financial aid.